On this day, Oct. 3
1941 Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.”
1951 The New York Giants captured the National League pennant by a score of 5-4 as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the “shot heard ’round the world.”
1970 The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established under the Department of Commerce.
1974 Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first Black manager as he was hired by the Cleveland Indians.
1981 Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.
1990 West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.
1995 The jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.
2001 The Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.
2003 A tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of duo “Siegfried & Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving the superstar illusionist in critical condition on his 59th birthday.
2008 O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017 and released from prison in October of that year.)
2011 An Italian appeals court freed Amanda Knox, of Seattle, after four years in prison, tossing murder convictions against Ms. Knox and an ex-boyfriend in the stabbing of their British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
2013 A smugglers’ ship packed with African migrants sank off the coast of a southern Italian island, killing more than 365 people.
Today’s birthdays: Composer Steve Reich, 87. Rock and roll star Chubby Checker, 82. Actor Alan Rachins, 81. Singer Lindsey Buckingham, 74. Former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, 72. Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, 72. Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, 69. Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, 69. World Golf Hall of Famer Fred Couples, 64. Actor-comedian Greg Proops, 64. Actor Jack Wagner, 64. Actor/musician Marcus Giamatti, 62. Rock musician Tommy Lee, 61. Actor Clive Owen, 59. Actor Janel Moloney, 54. Singer Gwen Stefani (No Doubt), 54. Pop singer Kevin Richardson (Backstreet Boys), 52. Actor Neve Campbell, 50. Actor Alanna Ubach, 48. Actor Seann William Scott, 47. Actor Shannyn Sossamon, 45. Actor Seth Gabel, 42. Actor Noah Schnapp (TV: “Stranger Things”), 19.